Review: The Hungry Ghost, Bush Theatre

l-r Mei Mac and Isabella Wei in The Hungry Ghost at Bush Theatre. Photo: Corinne Cumming You should always listen to your mum; that’s the lesson from the spooky rom-com The Hungry Ghost, which is Mei Leng Yew’s debut play. British Chinese ‘Girl’ (Mei Mac) is excited and nervous to be moving in with her Scottish girlfriend, Naomi, except she hasn’t told her parents. In a rush to leave, she ignores her mum’s plea to take extra care as it’s the first night of the Hungry Ghost Festival, and in so doing sets herself on a collision course with an obsessive ghost (Isabella Wei). This ghost has a plan, now that it is free to wander, which involves living out the desires that went unfulfilled in life. As the ghost now straddles two worlds, so does Girl. She is part of her traditional, superstitious Chinese mother’s world and also that of work, relationships and social politics. She tries to keep the two compartmentalised; it’s a little bit of cowardice mixed with denial. The play is a…